How about a top 100 horror film music sound track list?

[shadyJ]

Like the title says, a top 100 horror sound tracks list would be great. For me, music is a big part of what makes a movie rewatchable. Many times the drama of the music can be superior to the drama of the characters, and sometimes vice versa, but when the two are in sync, that makes movie magic.

I'm not a heavy connoisseur on horror soundtracks but I definitely have some ideas as to what should be on such a list.

Here are some horror movies with great soundtracks. In fact, I would say the music was integral to their success.

-Romero's first three dead movies
-many of Argento's movie, Susperia, Tenebrae, Terror at the Opera, to name a few.
-many of Carpenter's films, Halloween, The Thing, Prince of Darkness, to name a few
- Many of the scores James Benard did for the Hammer movies
- The Exorcist
- many of the classic Universal horror scores
- The first three Alien movies
- Psycho
- Demons
- Nightmare on Elm Street
- Jaws
- Hallraiser 1 and 2
- The Shining
- anthopophagus (when it wasn't using lame library music)

A couple more modern horror movies which I thought had great sound tracks were The Evil Dead Remake and The Conjuring. I also thought Beyond the Black Rainbow had a simple yet mesmeric score. If you consider the Predator movies horror, the first two Predators had great scores. Same goes for the first couple Terminator movies, terrific music.

Please add some more suggestions, I would love to see some discussion on this!

[Angra]

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[hammerfan]

I like the soundtrack for Return of the Living Dead

[urgeok2]

'Day of the Dead' is one of my favourites .. 'Hardware' as well ..

and 'The Keep'

[shadyJ]

Hardware, great electro/new wave soundtrack ...
The Keep, great Tangerine Dream soundtrack ... by the way, Sorcerer is getting rereleased, if you like a vintage Tangerine Dream soundtrack to a great movie.

I don't remember the Return of the Living dead soundtrack too well, will have to rewatch that one.

Day of the Dead, great soundtrack, I made a song tribute to Day of the Dead using elements of its soundtrack, you might enjoy it, it's called Darkest Day of Horror (https://soundcloud.com/shadyj-2/darkest-day-of-horror), free high quality mp3 download there.

[urgeok2]

Hardware, great electro/new wave soundtrack ...
The Keep, great Tangerine Dream soundtrack ... by the way, Sorcerer is getting rereleased, if you like a vintage Tangerine Dream soundtrack to a great movie.

I don't remember the Return of the Living dead soundtrack too well, will have to rewatch that one.

Day of the Dead, great soundtrack, I made a song tribute to Day of the Dead using elements of its soundtrack, you might enjoy it, it's called Darkest Day of Horror (https://soundcloud.com/shadyj-2/darkest-day-of-horror), free high quality mp3 download there.

I've had sorcerer on vinyl since the day it was released .

[Sculpt]

Like the title says, a top 100 horror sound tracks list would be great. For me, music is a big part of what makes a movie rewatchable. Many times the drama of the music can be superior to the drama of the characters, and sometimes vice versa, but when the two are in sync, that makes movie magic.

I'm not a heavy connoisseur on horror soundtracks but I definitely have some ideas as to what should be on such a list.

Here are some horror movies with great soundtracks. In fact, I would say the music was integral to their success.

-Romero's first three dead movies
-many of Argento's movie, Susperia, Tenebrae, Terror at the Opera, to name a few.
-many of Carpenter's films, Halloween, The Thing, Prince of Darkness, to name a few
- Many of the scores James Benard did for the Hammer movies
- The Exorcist
- many of the classic Universal horror scores
- The first three Alien movies
- Psycho
- Demons
- Nightmare on Elm Street
- Jaws
- Hallraiser 1 and 2
- The Shining
- anthopophagus (when it wasn't using lame library music)

A couple more modern horror movies which I thought had great sound tracks were The Evil Dead Remake and The Conjuring. I also thought Beyond the Black Rainbow had a simple yet mesmeric score. If you consider the Predator movies horror, the first two Predators had great scores. Same goes for the first couple Terminator movies, terrific music.

Please add some more suggestions, I would love to see some discussion on this!
Depends on what you mean by horror film soundtrack. If you mean stand alone soundtrack (like one might purchase), or you mean soundtrack inseparable from the film? If you mean all the sounds, or just the music? From your OP post, sounds like you mean the later in both cases. Which do you mean?

Interesting question. Some will say, like the acting and directing, the best sound is the one you never notice, because it puts you into the story so deep, you don't notice any distinct aspects of the film.

If we're talking about integrated soundtrack, music plus other sounds, The Exorcist, Alien, Godzilla Vs the Smog Monster and Evildead 2 are fantastic. For integrated music, Halloween, Gojira, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Alien and Jaws come to mind. For stand alone music soundtrack there aren't any that come to mind. For horror film stand alone pieces of music, I'd say 'Sacred Springs' and 'Halloween Theme' are the best.

[urgeok2]

Goblin's Argento scores would all be on my favourites list

[shadyJ]

Depends on what you mean by horror film soundtrack. If you mean stand alone soundtrack (like one might purchase), or you mean soundtrack inseparable from the film? If you mean all the sounds, or just the music? From your OP post, sounds like you mean the later in both cases. Which do you mean?

I meant music, but sometimes music is deeply intertwined with the rest of the soundtrack as though it were an ambient effect, so maybe a bit of both with an emphasis on music.

[shadyJ]

I just thought of a couple other good ones, Inside and Martyrs both had good scores.

[Fearonsarms]

Fabio Frizzi's soundtracks to The Beyond and Zombi 2/Zombie Flesh Eaters are great.

[The Bloofer Lady]

Absolutely crazy about 80's films soundtracks like FRIGHT NIGHT 1985 and LOST BOYS 1987 being high on the list. The 1st and 2nd TERMINATOR movies. EDWARD SCISSORHANDS...yep.

[jiraffejustin]

Any thoughts on voting for this list? Everybody make a top 25 or something, and then tabulate the scores. Then we get a top 100 (or whatever number) list. It would be interesting to me.

If Eraserhead counts as horror then it deserves a spot.